Discovery services find use in a wide range of applications and environments. For example, discovery services may be used to locate printers, websites, and web services that have been made publicly available in a network. However, in certain networks it may be desirable to provide some degree of anonymity and authentication for various reasons. An example for such a network is a unique identifier network deployed in a supply chain spanning over one or more companies.
Unique identifier networks rely on unique identifier technologies, such as unique identifier tags and unique identifier coding schemes, and allow for countless applications, such as item tracking, item tracing, item authentication, or item supply chain analysis. Examples for unique identifier tags are radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and two-dimensional barcodes. Unique identifier tags provide the basis for tagging physical objects (herein referred to as ‘items’) with unique identifiers that are encoded using unique identifier coding schemes. From the time an item was tagged/assigned with a unique identifier, the unique identifier represents the item in a unique identifier network. Examples for the abovementioned unique identifier coding schemes are the Electronic Product Code (EPC) coding scheme and the Unique Consignment Reference (UCR) coding scheme. The EPC coding scheme is designed to meet the needs of various industries, while guaranteeing uniqueness for all EPC-compliant unique identifier tags. The UCR coding scheme was defined by the World Customs Organization for providing a traceable identifying number for an international movement of goods.
The above described unique identifier technologies provide the basis for unique identifier networks that gather, store, and provide data about items comprising a unique identifier tag as they move through supply chains. Every time a unique identifier is read, a piece of data is generated (from hereon referred to as an ‘event’). Each event may be stored on an event server, which is typically located at the site of a custodian that generated said event. A custodian may be a company, such as a manufacturer, a wholesaler, a distributor, a retailer or even a maintenance service. An item may be any physical object, such as raw materials, parts and finished goods as well as containers used to transport other items around the world. However, an item may also refer any non-physical object that may be represented by a unique identifier in a unique identifier network.
In order to understand and/or optimize a supply chain, the stored data, i.e. the stored events, may be analyzed by tracking and tracing one or multiple items represented by a unique identifier each. Thereby, information may be extracted that is related to usage, dwell time, down time, mean-time-between-failure and inventory. Such information may assist those directly involved in supply chains, for example: manufacturers, distributors, transportation service providers and retailers. In many cases, authorities and governing bodies also value and require access to this information, for example: port authorities, customs and excise agencies, and import/export and border control.
Discovery services are envisaged to provide according track and trace information (also referred to as trip information) regarding items tagged with a unique identifier tag. For example, according discovery services, upon request from a client, may retrieve all events relevant to a query item, which were generated throughout the lifecycle of the query item. Thereby, the discovery service deals with a variety of technical problems and issues, some of them are presented in the following:
A first technical problem is based on the fact that each custodian typically stores all events that it generated on its own, local event server. Often, the query item is shipped from one custodian to another and thus events relevant for the query item may be spread out on a plurality of different event servers located at their corresponding custodians. Accordingly, the discovery service should be able to identify and find all events relevant to the query item.
The first technical problem is further complicated by the fact that containers, such as pallets, totes and boxes, are used throughout supply chains to aggregate items for transportation. Though containers are also items as defined above and may comprise unique identifier tags storing a unique identifier, the query item may move “hidden” in a container through the supply chain. The query item may even be contained in a first container, which in turn may be contained in a second container. Such higher degrees/levels of packing are referred to as packing hierarchy. Accordingly, the discovery service should also be able to identify and find all events that are relevant to a container containing the query item.
A second technical problem arises from the fact that data ownership for custodians must be observed. Though many advantages such as track and trace based applications arise from unique identifier networks and discovery services, the information that custodians are storing on their event servers may be classified. Business secrets could be easily disclosed by data mining approaches if data ownership and proper authentication procedures are not properly implemented. Accordingly, the discovery service and the unique identifier network should provide custodians with full control over their business data, events, event server addresses, and event server authentication settings.
The second technical problem is further complicated by the fact that containers, unlike retail goods, are repeatedly used and may circulate in a supply chain for several years. Such containers are referred to as reusable transport items (RTI). During their lifetime, containers may be used by different, competitive businesses. Accordingly, the discovery service should be able to distinguish between trips of a container that are relevant for the query item and trips that are not relevant for the query item.
A third technical problem arises from the fact that a discovery service should provide track and trace information in fast and resource efficient manner. A client, such as a customer querying track and trace information regarding a prescription medicinal drug just bought, may not be willing to wait longer than a few seconds for the result of the query.
The present invention addresses those and other technical problems arising in a unique identifier network, which certainly are common to many discovery services in other environments and applications.